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Jakarta Post

Draft bylaw deliberation at stake in political year

As the end of its five-year term approaches, doubts are raised over the City Council’s performance in deliberating draft bylaws

Sausan Atika (The Jakarta Post)
Jakarta
Thu, January 17, 2019

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Draft bylaw deliberation  at stake in political year

As the end of its five-year term approaches, doubts are raised over the City Council’s performance in deliberating draft bylaws.

The council has endorsed 18 draft bylaws included in the 2019 Jakarta Legislation Program, with 14 proposed by the executive branch and the remaining by councillors.

The figure is a drastic drop from last year’s 45 draft bylaws, 33 of which were proposed by the city administration. From the 45, only 11 were passed and all of them had been proposed by the administration.

Indonesian Parliament Watch (Formappi) analyst Lucius Karus expressed his doubt that any of the nation’s legislative bodies, including the one in the capital, would improve their performance in this political year.

He predicted that less than a quarter of the council’s targeted draft bylaws would be deliberated this year because most councillors would be focusing on their own campaign for reelection.

“A short time span, a lot of activities,” Lucius told The Jakarta Post, referring to the eight months in which the councillors are expected to complete the bylaws before their successors are inaugurated.

The current City Council’s term ends in August.

Lucius pointed to some councillors’ failure to submit their official wealth report to the Corruption Eradication Commission as one indication that their focus had shifted ahead of the election.

“Even when they had no election-related activities, their performance was rather low. And it’s now the pre-election period when [political parties] are demanding that they focus on securing a [legislative] seat,” Formappi analyst said.

This April, about 92 percent of Jakarta’s 105 councillors will be on the ballot for the 2019-2024 term in office, either running for a seat in the City Council or the House of Representatives.

Among them is Jakarta Council Speaker Prasetyo Edi Marsudi from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) and deputy speakers M. Taufik from the Gerindra Party, Ichwan Zayadi from the United Development Party (PPP), as well as Ferrial Sofyan from the Democratic Party.

Hasbiallah Ilyas from the National Awakening Party (PKB), a member of the council’s legislation body (Bapemperda) who is seeking reelection, assured that draft bylaw deliberations would not be overshadowed by election-related matters and campaign activities were commonly conducted in the evening or over the weekend.

“I believe that the [deliberations] would not be affected by [by campaign],” he said.

Another Bapemperda member who is also seeking reelection, Santoso of the Democratic Party, was confident that councillors would be able to complete their deliberations amid the campaign.

He added that the three months they had after the election and before the term officially ends in August could potentially be optimized to pass the draft bylaws.

“After the election, there will be no more [campaign] activities; May until July could be more effective,” he said.

City Council Speaker Prasetyo, who is also seeking reelection, expressed a similar sentiment, saying that despite their respective political activities, the councillors would “make time” for the deliberations.

“Ask the executives how many draft bylaws were proposed to us. Not all of [the responsibility is] at the hands of legislature; it is with the executives as well,” he said.

Jakarta Legal Bureau head Yayan Yuhana conceded that there had been unanticipated consequences during the preparation of certain draft bylaws last year, such as the more time required to coordinate with third parties or revising the draft bylaws after they were reviewed by the bureau.

As the bureau plays a role in coordinating with agencies that are in charge of the endorsed bylaws, Yayan said her side had reminded related agencies that had yet to submit any draft bylaws to the bureau for regulatory harmonization, asking for confirmation on their ability to complete them.

However, she claimed that the draft bylaws on this year’s list would likely be ready to be proposed to the council, as three bylaws related to the city budget were a yearly agenda, while others on the list were a continuation of unfinished bylaw deliberations from the past year.

According to Council Decree No. 86/2018 on the 2019 bylaws establishment program, which was made available to the Post by the council secretary M. Yuliadi, 11 drafts out of 18 endorsed bylaws had been submitted to the council.

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